What’s important about ‘coming out’? Why do we wear business suits or Star Trek pins? Part of the answer, we think, has to do with what we call agential identity. Social metaphysics has given us tools for understanding what it is to be socially positioned as a member of a particular group and what it means to self-identify with a group. But there is little exploration of the general relationship between selfidentity and social position. We take up this exploration, developing an account of agential identity—the self-identities we make available to others. Agential identities are the bridge between what we take ourselves to be and what others take us to be. Understanding agential identity not only fills an important gap in the literature, but also helps us explain politically important phenomena concerning discrimination, malicious identities, passing, and code-switching. These phenomena, we argue, cannot be understood solely in terms of self-identity or social position.

中文翻译：

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是的，我是同性恋'：了解特工身份

“出来”有什么重要意义？为什么我们穿西装或星际迷航别针？我们认为，答案的一部分与我们所谓的代理身份有关。社会形而上学为我们提供了一些工具，使他们能够理解作为一个特定群体的一员在社会上的定位，以及与一个群体进行自我认同的含义。但是，很少有关于自我认同与社会地位之间一般关系的探索。我们着手进行这项探索，开发了代理身份的帐户，即我们向他人提供的自我身份。代理身份是我们要成为自己和他人要成为我们之间的桥梁。了解代理身份不仅填补了文献中的重要空白，而且还帮助我们解释了有关歧视，恶意身份，传递和代码切换。我们认为，不能仅凭自我认同或社会地位来理解这些现象。